Dan Bernstein Unfiltered, Unfiltered on 312 Sports.

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Always an important day in the spring when Tom Ricketts descends from the tower to give his

preseason speech. And it matters more this year for a lot of reasons. Reasons that are

Cubs specific and then more league and MLB game of baseball specific as well.

There was a lot going on and a lot of attention paid to what Tom Ricketts had to say and

choosing to do it when he did is obviously going to bring a little bit more disproportionate

coverage because of the lack of news headlines going on right now.

And he understands that.

So there were obviously

some people at the Major League Baseball Office level, listening very carefully to what he had to say

publicly, for reasons I'll get into in just a bit. But why don't we hear from him and just

for, you know, start with hearing what he had to say and then we're going to respond

on some different levels as to why it's a little more meaningful in a lot of ways this year

when the owner of the cubs speaks publicly yeah well it's it's going to be a fun summer i mean

obviously we have a great baseball team but a lot of the we'll do-year anniversary stuff, and then it's the 150th anniversary of the team. So we have a lot going on. It's going to be a really, really great summer at Wrigley. I mean, everyone had high expectations last year, and I think they're higher this year. I mean, obviously we have, you know, effectively the same team last year, plus a couple key components that should contribute. So, you know, I mean, I would, I would expect everyone to have higher expectations this year. Well, obviously, we want to win the division. We should win the division. You know, it's just a matter of executing and staying healthy, and I think we should be right there. You want to win the division for a lot of reasons, not just because it's aggravating not to,

but you want to put yourself in the best position for the playoffs as well.

And so hopefully that will execute against that plan and be there at the end of the season.

Well, I mean, you guys were all there.

Riggily was incredible in those playoff games last year. And it did remind you of, you know, some of those games back in 15 and 16 and somewhat 17 where we had, you know, just the kind of energy. And obviously, we want to have those games every year. Obviously, we want to win the World Series every year. But for me, too, it's like, it's just, it's just paying off all the, all the loyal fans who have come to so many games for so many years and given so much to the team to be able to pay them back with an incredible experience like what we saw in the playoffs last year. That just means a lot to me personally and I want to do that every year. We just have to win more World Series. I mean, it's about winning. I mean, all this other stuff, it all leads to one thing,

and that's about winning. And we just have to put the kind of teams on the field that can

be in the playoffs every year and get back on top. We should win the division. It's about

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